ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN -TOED UNGULATES 593 



down front of each leg dark, ... In females there is little or no 

 crest and no ruff, while the white is less pure, and the rump-patch 

 less distinct." (Lydekker, 1913c, vol. 1, p. 98.) Height of old rams 

 at shoulder 3^ to 4 feet, females not much less" (Blanford, 1891, 

 p. 495). Record length of horns on front curve, 55 inches (Ward, 

 1935, p. 281). 



The northern and eastern distributional limits of this sheep are 

 none too definitely known. Blanford (1891, p. 495) gives the 

 range as "the plateau of Tibet from Northern Ladak to the country 

 north of Sikhim and probably farther east. This sheep does not 

 range south of the main Himalayan axis; it is not found in summer 

 below about 15,000 feet elevation; in winter it may descend to about 

 12,000 in places." Lydekker (1900, p. 85) extends the range "north- 

 wards to the Kuen-lun," but Nasonov asserts (1923, p. 96) that 

 its presence in those mountains is not yet proved. 



"Large flocks of ewes and young rams . . . are met with in the 

 Chang-chenmo district" of Ladak (Lydekker, 1900, pp. 85-86) . In 

 1891 it required a good many days' hunting to secure two out of 

 a few rams seen in the Chang-chenmo Valley (Hunter, in Lydekker, 

 1900, pp. 396-397). Carruthers writes of this same area in 1915 

 (p. 117) : "Now that the 'block' system has been introduced for 

 their further protection the total number that can be shot each 

 season has been materially reduced. Hitherto the twenty 'guns' 

 allowed into Ladak both first and second leave were each allowed 

 to kill one, and it is to be hoped that the new regulations will be 

 found sufficient for the preservation of these fine sheep." 



Burrard writes (1925?, pp. 193, 196, 206-207; distr. map facing 

 p. 194) : 



There are two spots in which Ammon rams will sometimes cross the crest 

 of the Zaskar Range, although they will never wander far down the southern 

 slopes of that range. These two places are: first, just to the south of the 

 Tso Morari (lake), where they may be occasionally found at the head of the 

 Kibber Valley in Spiti; and secondly, in the neighbourhood of the Kangri 

 Bingri Pass on the borders of Kumaon and British Garhwal. . . . 



I believe . . . that in hard winters when food is scarce the rams with the 

 biggest and heaviest heads find the burden of them too much to carry easily 

 and are unable to gallop as fast as the others, and so fall a prey to the 

 wolves. 



[The habitat in Ladak] has been so heavily hunted for very many years 

 past, that rams with shootable heads are not common. In 1911 a friend of 

 mine traversed Ladak from Chang Chen Mo in the north to Hanle in the 

 south, and saw but one ram worth shooting .... They are also sometimes 

 to be found in the neighbourhood of Tso Lhama (lake) at the head of the 

 Tista River in the extreme north of Sikkim, but here again they are only 

 occasional visitors. 



C. H. Stockley writes (in Hit., September 16, 1933) : "Ammon 

 have been wiped out in the Tiri Foo [Kashmir], which used to be a 

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